Tom Jenkins's Profile

The wild man of jam bands returned to Madison Theater Saturday night for a once again 110 percent effort in becoming the world’s greatest bar band.

With already several big-name acts playing The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center, fans have been given a whole new option for acts they otherwise may have had to travel to go see. And for bands like Modest Mouse and Future Islands, they were able to play in a venue that seemed to fit them perfectly.

Monday night, The Killers brought their “Imploding the Mirage” tour to PromoWest’s Pavilion at OVATION in Newport, Kentucky.

The Cincinnati venue was the first of a long stretch of tour dates throughout the U.S., and as the band took the stage, you could see a sort of rejuvenation in Paterson Hood and Mike Cooley.

The return of live music was never going to be the same, or at least to begin, it wouldn’t be. We now live in a different time that requires patience and a little understanding if we are to enjoy the experiences we had before the pandemic.

The Mayor of Margaritaville has been a mainstay of summer outdoor venues since the ’80s and gracing every backyard barbecue since the ‘70s.

After a year of uncertainty surrounding live music and when it would return, concerts have begun to pop up like wildfire.

2020… the never ending nightmare of a year. This year was like watching a beautiful trainwreck that just kept piling up. Off to the side of the tracks, was many of us putting our headphones in and drowning out the world. Lucky for us, 2020 spawned some of the best music in years.

So where does a band go now? One who has essentially free range to try anything at this point in their career? Naturally, an elegant existential exploration into the American psyche and what it means to be an American band.

As we all bunker down for the long haul it looks as though, at least the beginning of our summer concert plans are on hold. All major festivals have either been postponed, rescheduled or canceled and the fate of single concert dates will all be based on whether we can all gather in large groups again this summer.

Coronavirus was not stopping the dedicated fans of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (PPPP), or the music enthusiasts wanting to see the young phenoms in Goose, Wednesday night at Madison Theater.